I know the horses I ride and train well enough to know their max speed and hitting or spurring them is not going to make them faster. I do the absolute minimum necessary. You may not can tell but you can have spurs on, and still use leg without spurring. If I'm on a serious push style horse, I'm using a lot of leg and hardly any spur.

Spurs are not for GO. I've got professional friends who'll get off their horses after a run and their sides are bleeding. TOO MUCH.

Some horses have to be pushed more, but I get sent a lot of horses with gate issues, or blown up and after watching them run you can tell why. They are getting flat out abused in that arena and they learn to hate and be scared of their job.

Like I said, some people over do it. I do not think the girl in this run horribly over did it though.

If you ask for speed and the horse doesn't go either, you better believe I'll get a whip out. You let them ignore you once, especially on unforgiving horses, you'll have to fix it. Eventually the horse will learn to run full out on the first soft cue for it. That's just another thing to think about. I don't always use my whip on Selena, but when she ignores me deliberately I will.

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